I nearly went to Thursday's game, but ended up at Wednesday's instead. Big mistake. Instead of seeing a spectacular comeback that will no doubt end up in the slim catalog of SNY Mets Classics, I got to see what a Met infield would look like without Jose Reyes or David Wright.
I did not find out until well after the fact that Terry Collins was even more annoyed than I was about the shoddy infield play that resulted in a steady stream of infield hits and helped the Pirates turn a 2-0 deficit into a 9-3 win. But what Collins really needed to be annoyed with was that Willie Harris is still on his roster and that Sandy Alderson has been no better so far at building a bench on the cheap than Omar Minaya was.
Things got a lot brighter Thursday when Reyes returned to the lineup and Harris returned to the bench. And then there was that comeback for the ages. So I deleted the gloom and doom post I started Wednesday night. After all, I did have a good time going to my first game of the year.
But ownership should know that even if fans can still have fun at the ballpark watching a lousy lineup playing a lousy game, my tickets in the fifth row of the promenade behind home plate were only $6.50 each, plus StubHub fees. And unless I missed it, they didn't bother to put the attendance on the scoreboard. It wasn't too long ago when the Mets would ask you to guess the attendance and put up four different figures, all much higher than whatever they are drawing now.
*
If the Mets want to reduce the gloom and doom surround the club, how about putting an end to rumors that they might aim to keep Reyes, but then they would have to move Wright. What's next - Shake Shack will only have hamburgers or shakes, but not both? I actually read somewhere that this could be the best time to trade Wright, before his value goes down more. Yeah, when he's on the DL with a stress fracture in his back - that's the time to move him!
Wright, like Reyes, is a very good player who has done well in New York, unlike, say, Jason Bay. Nobody should be untouchable, but moves just to cut costs can help you end up with an infield like Wednesday night's - Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada and Willie Harris.
Showing posts with label Jose Reyes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jose Reyes. Show all posts
Friday, June 3, 2011
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Why Are Mets Promoting Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran for All-Star Game?
Just got an email from mets.com: REYES, BELTRAN NEED YOUR VOTES! Yeah, that's the way to cheer up a fan base - tell them to support players that may not even be in Met uniforms by the All-Star Game.
Maybe Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran would have more votes if their owner hadn't publicly criticized them last week.
Perhaps Fred Wilpon can make it up to Reyes by voting for him - just so long as he doesn't get Carl Crawford vote totals.
And Wilpon can vote for Beltran, but fill out multiple ballots with other outfielders so Beltran only gets 65-70% of his support.
The one thing we won't see from the Mets is truth in marketing:
Vote for Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran - increase their trade value!
Vote for Reyes and Beltran - it may be years before another Met has any hope of being voted onto the team!
Enjoy these Met All-Star performances while you can - starting in 2012, the Mets will only get someone on the team because every team has to have an All-Star. (But at least Justin Turner will be able to tell his grandkids he was an All-Star.)
I'd love to vote for Reyes - to sign a new contract with the Mets. As for Beltran, I vote for him to find a team that appreciates him.
In the end, many fans, including this one, will be voting with their wallets. And the exit polls on that score are looking pretty grim.
Perhaps the person most in favor of the Mets' latest dubious marketing ploy is incoming investor David Einhorn. ESPN's Adam Rubin suggests that Einhorn may be counting on the team to tank financially so that he can eventually take it over.
And a good way to make Met fans even angrier is to ask them to cast their All-Star votes for Reyes and Beltran - to think of them as the stars they are, just as ownership is no longer able or willing to pay for stars.
Maybe Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran would have more votes if their owner hadn't publicly criticized them last week.
Perhaps Fred Wilpon can make it up to Reyes by voting for him - just so long as he doesn't get Carl Crawford vote totals.
And Wilpon can vote for Beltran, but fill out multiple ballots with other outfielders so Beltran only gets 65-70% of his support.
The one thing we won't see from the Mets is truth in marketing:
Vote for Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran - increase their trade value!
Vote for Reyes and Beltran - it may be years before another Met has any hope of being voted onto the team!
Enjoy these Met All-Star performances while you can - starting in 2012, the Mets will only get someone on the team because every team has to have an All-Star. (But at least Justin Turner will be able to tell his grandkids he was an All-Star.)
I'd love to vote for Reyes - to sign a new contract with the Mets. As for Beltran, I vote for him to find a team that appreciates him.
In the end, many fans, including this one, will be voting with their wallets. And the exit polls on that score are looking pretty grim.
Perhaps the person most in favor of the Mets' latest dubious marketing ploy is incoming investor David Einhorn. ESPN's Adam Rubin suggests that Einhorn may be counting on the team to tank financially so that he can eventually take it over.
And a good way to make Met fans even angrier is to ask them to cast their All-Star votes for Reyes and Beltran - to think of them as the stars they are, just as ownership is no longer able or willing to pay for stars.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Fred Wilpon: Steinbrenner Without the Success
I am not a fan of George Steinbrenner, but he did resurrect the Yankee brand and bring multiple titles to the Bronx. However, Fred Wilpon's Steinbrenner-type comments on several of his stars in the New Yorker betray a mindset that won't result in any titles and could further damage the Mets' image.
The most successful big-market teams use their payroll advantage to overpay some players. The Yankees, with their $200 million payroll, can land a CC Sabathia by giving him tens of millions of dollars more than any other team. A.J. Burnett got a contract that seemed crazy at the time and seems crazier now. But the signings of Sabathia and Burnett, along with Mark Teixeira (who appears to have gotten market value), produced a World Series title for the Yankees in their first season.
The Red Sox and the Phillies have had plenty of questionable signings- John Lackey and Raul Ibanez, just to name two recent ones. Cliff Lee is 32 with a five-year contract. What are the odds that he will be great all five years?
But the willingness of the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies to spend big on several players, knowing that not all of them will justify their investment, that most if not all will offer diminishing returns over the life of their long contracts, results in these teams being perennial contenders.
The Mets have shown all too often that simply spending lots of money is no guarantee of success. But they have also shown that overpaying for stars can quickly bring a team to the brink of the World Series.
The Mets won 71 games in 2004. Over the next two offseasons, they signed Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner and traded for Carlos Delgado. In 2006, the Mets won 97 games.
Beltran finished fourth in MVP voting that season and Delgado finished twelfth. Wagner was sixth in Cy Young voting. Pedro made the All-Star team in 2006 before he got hurt.
Combining these expensive pieces with another acquisition, Paul Lo Duca, and homegrown stars Wright and Reyes (who both were top 10 in MVP voting in 2006) got the Mets to Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.
Many Met fans probably agree with Wilpon that the Beltran signing didn't pay off in the long run. As much as I like Pedro, his signing was not a success - he was only healthy for a year and a half out of four. Both Wagner and Delgado saw their Met tenures cut short by injuries.
One could argue that all four of these players failed to return full value on their contracts. But thanks to this combination of players, the Mets were a top contender for three seasons - 2006-8.
Say what you will about Beltran, but the Mets would not have been a contender in those years without him.
And Fred Wilpon regrets signing him.
Beltran is a Scott Boras client who probably wanted to leave the Mets even before the latest mess. The Mets are unlikely to retain him at anything approaching a reasonable value.
But Reyes is a much different case. The Mets may well have to overpay for him, but what the Mets consistently fail to realize is that it's better to overpay for a great player than try to save money by signing a lesser light to a still-big contract.
Two years ago, there were a couple of power-hitting left fielders on the free agent market. The Mets got Jason Bay for $66 million while the Cardinals got Matt Holliday for $120 million. Holliday didn't seem to be twice as good as Bay, so it looked like the Mets got a good deal. But as of now, Bay is almost worthless, while Holliday is a perennial MVP candidate on a pennant contender.
After the 2008 season, the Mets might have signed Derek Lowe for $60 million. Instead, they signed Oliver Perez for $36 million. Lowe has not been that great with the Braves and this year he has been charged with a DUI. But Lowe won 31 games with the Braves in 2009-10. During those years, Perez won three.
If the Mets had spent more money on Lowe instead of less on Perez, things could have been a lot different the last two seasons.
Yes, the 2011 Mets show the perils of overpaying too many players. But if you're going to overpay anyone, Reyes and Wright, two regular All-Stars when healthy who are still under 30, are a good place to start. And think of the potential alternatives:
The Phillies may be in a market for a shortstop next year, with the declining Jimmy Rollins also in his contract year this season.
What if Derek Jeter hits .240 and the Yankees miss the playoffs? Does the Yankees signing Reyes still seem so unlikely?
What if David Wright decides to become a free agent right around the time the Yankees are ready to shift A-Rod to DH? Oh, and Wright also would be a big upgrade at third for the Phillies.
Think the Yankees and Phillies wouldn't love to stick it to the Mets and pilfer their biggest names? The Phillies are so eager to show up the Mets that they even signed Luis Castillo after the Mets cut him. The Yankees turned all-time Mets Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden into important Yankees as well.
Reyes is no Tom Seaver, but at least M. Donald Grant didn't send The Franchise to the Yankees.
Last year, the Twins signed Joe Mauer to a huge contract. Now Mauer is hurt and his catching days may be numbered. It's unclear whether Mauer will justify his contract.
But the Twins realized they had no choice but to retain the face of their franchise. Now, even though the Twins have the worst record in baseball, per-game attendance is barely down from last year, when the Twins debuted their new ballpark. Twins fans know that the previously cheap team can now hold on to their stars.
Meanwhile, Rays' attendance and TV ratings are plummeting, even though the team is percentage points out of first place. But the Rays said goodbye to Matt Garza, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano. And they refused to give Carl Crawford money to Carl Crawford. Rays fans know that whatever success the team has will be short-lived because they can't hold on to their good players.
Fred Wilpon wanted to bring back the era of the 1950s by modeling Citi Field after Ebbets Field. Instead, he may end up bringing back the era of the late 1970s, when Grant's unwillingness to pay his stars turned Shea Stadium into "Grant's Tomb."
The most successful big-market teams use their payroll advantage to overpay some players. The Yankees, with their $200 million payroll, can land a CC Sabathia by giving him tens of millions of dollars more than any other team. A.J. Burnett got a contract that seemed crazy at the time and seems crazier now. But the signings of Sabathia and Burnett, along with Mark Teixeira (who appears to have gotten market value), produced a World Series title for the Yankees in their first season.
The Red Sox and the Phillies have had plenty of questionable signings- John Lackey and Raul Ibanez, just to name two recent ones. Cliff Lee is 32 with a five-year contract. What are the odds that he will be great all five years?
But the willingness of the Yankees, Red Sox and Phillies to spend big on several players, knowing that not all of them will justify their investment, that most if not all will offer diminishing returns over the life of their long contracts, results in these teams being perennial contenders.
The Mets have shown all too often that simply spending lots of money is no guarantee of success. But they have also shown that overpaying for stars can quickly bring a team to the brink of the World Series.
The Mets won 71 games in 2004. Over the next two offseasons, they signed Pedro Martinez, Carlos Beltran and Billy Wagner and traded for Carlos Delgado. In 2006, the Mets won 97 games.
Beltran finished fourth in MVP voting that season and Delgado finished twelfth. Wagner was sixth in Cy Young voting. Pedro made the All-Star team in 2006 before he got hurt.
Combining these expensive pieces with another acquisition, Paul Lo Duca, and homegrown stars Wright and Reyes (who both were top 10 in MVP voting in 2006) got the Mets to Game 7 of the 2006 NLCS.
Many Met fans probably agree with Wilpon that the Beltran signing didn't pay off in the long run. As much as I like Pedro, his signing was not a success - he was only healthy for a year and a half out of four. Both Wagner and Delgado saw their Met tenures cut short by injuries.
One could argue that all four of these players failed to return full value on their contracts. But thanks to this combination of players, the Mets were a top contender for three seasons - 2006-8.
Say what you will about Beltran, but the Mets would not have been a contender in those years without him.
And Fred Wilpon regrets signing him.
Beltran is a Scott Boras client who probably wanted to leave the Mets even before the latest mess. The Mets are unlikely to retain him at anything approaching a reasonable value.
But Reyes is a much different case. The Mets may well have to overpay for him, but what the Mets consistently fail to realize is that it's better to overpay for a great player than try to save money by signing a lesser light to a still-big contract.
Two years ago, there were a couple of power-hitting left fielders on the free agent market. The Mets got Jason Bay for $66 million while the Cardinals got Matt Holliday for $120 million. Holliday didn't seem to be twice as good as Bay, so it looked like the Mets got a good deal. But as of now, Bay is almost worthless, while Holliday is a perennial MVP candidate on a pennant contender.
After the 2008 season, the Mets might have signed Derek Lowe for $60 million. Instead, they signed Oliver Perez for $36 million. Lowe has not been that great with the Braves and this year he has been charged with a DUI. But Lowe won 31 games with the Braves in 2009-10. During those years, Perez won three.
If the Mets had spent more money on Lowe instead of less on Perez, things could have been a lot different the last two seasons.
Yes, the 2011 Mets show the perils of overpaying too many players. But if you're going to overpay anyone, Reyes and Wright, two regular All-Stars when healthy who are still under 30, are a good place to start. And think of the potential alternatives:
The Phillies may be in a market for a shortstop next year, with the declining Jimmy Rollins also in his contract year this season.
What if Derek Jeter hits .240 and the Yankees miss the playoffs? Does the Yankees signing Reyes still seem so unlikely?
What if David Wright decides to become a free agent right around the time the Yankees are ready to shift A-Rod to DH? Oh, and Wright also would be a big upgrade at third for the Phillies.
Think the Yankees and Phillies wouldn't love to stick it to the Mets and pilfer their biggest names? The Phillies are so eager to show up the Mets that they even signed Luis Castillo after the Mets cut him. The Yankees turned all-time Mets Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden into important Yankees as well.
Reyes is no Tom Seaver, but at least M. Donald Grant didn't send The Franchise to the Yankees.
Last year, the Twins signed Joe Mauer to a huge contract. Now Mauer is hurt and his catching days may be numbered. It's unclear whether Mauer will justify his contract.
But the Twins realized they had no choice but to retain the face of their franchise. Now, even though the Twins have the worst record in baseball, per-game attendance is barely down from last year, when the Twins debuted their new ballpark. Twins fans know that the previously cheap team can now hold on to their stars.
Meanwhile, Rays' attendance and TV ratings are plummeting, even though the team is percentage points out of first place. But the Rays said goodbye to Matt Garza, Carlos Pena and Rafael Soriano. And they refused to give Carl Crawford money to Carl Crawford. Rays fans know that whatever success the team has will be short-lived because they can't hold on to their good players.
Fred Wilpon wanted to bring back the era of the 1950s by modeling Citi Field after Ebbets Field. Instead, he may end up bringing back the era of the late 1970s, when Grant's unwillingness to pay his stars turned Shea Stadium into "Grant's Tomb."
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Jose Reyes' George Brett Pine Tar Moment
In 1983, George Brett went berserk when an umpire's controversial call cost him a homer and appeared to cost the Royals a victory over the Yankees. Last night, Jose Reyes went berserk when an umpire's controversial call cost him a triple and appeared to doom the Mets to defeat. But the Royals would eventually win that game, and last night, the Mets ended up winning as well.
See video of Reyes' reaction after getting called out at third.
See video from the Pine Tar Game (Squawker Lisa was at this game!)
Unlike the Royals, the Mets did not have the call overturned, but they also did not have to wait 25 days to finish the game and get the win after the American League ruled that Brett's homer should be allowed and the game would have to resume at that point. Instead, the Mets rallied, not once, but twice, in the late innings to beat the Nationals and win their sixth straight.
If this turns out to be a magical year for the Mets (not that I think it will, but that's the nature of magical years - you can't predict them) the magic began last night. How else do you explain Daniel Murphy homering to tie the game right after Reyes was called out, making a bad play at second in the bottom of the eighth to help the Nationals score the go-ahead run, then doubling in two runs in the ninth to seal the win?
The most magical thing I will hope for this season is that the Mets find a way to keep Reyes. He's the catalyst who hit a clutch extra-base hit in the eighth inning of a 2-1 game and legged it out for what should have been a triple. Then, when he was called out, he displayed fire you wouldn't see from most Mets.
The reality check is that, even after winning six straight, the Mets are still 11-13, but at least they are out of last place and look headed in the right direction.
***
One final note on last night's game - Rick Ankiel had to give up pitching because he couldn't control his pitches from the mound to the plate, yet he was able to make an unbelievable dead-on throw from the outfield wall to third base on the Reyes hit.
See video of Reyes' reaction after getting called out at third.
See video from the Pine Tar Game (Squawker Lisa was at this game!)
Unlike the Royals, the Mets did not have the call overturned, but they also did not have to wait 25 days to finish the game and get the win after the American League ruled that Brett's homer should be allowed and the game would have to resume at that point. Instead, the Mets rallied, not once, but twice, in the late innings to beat the Nationals and win their sixth straight.
If this turns out to be a magical year for the Mets (not that I think it will, but that's the nature of magical years - you can't predict them) the magic began last night. How else do you explain Daniel Murphy homering to tie the game right after Reyes was called out, making a bad play at second in the bottom of the eighth to help the Nationals score the go-ahead run, then doubling in two runs in the ninth to seal the win?
The most magical thing I will hope for this season is that the Mets find a way to keep Reyes. He's the catalyst who hit a clutch extra-base hit in the eighth inning of a 2-1 game and legged it out for what should have been a triple. Then, when he was called out, he displayed fire you wouldn't see from most Mets.
The reality check is that, even after winning six straight, the Mets are still 11-13, but at least they are out of last place and look headed in the right direction.
***
One final note on last night's game - Rick Ankiel had to give up pitching because he couldn't control his pitches from the mound to the plate, yet he was able to make an unbelievable dead-on throw from the outfield wall to third base on the Reyes hit.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Could Jose Reyes end up on the Phillies?
If Derek Jeter wouldn't switch positions for Alex Rodriguez, he isn't likely to do so for Jose Reyes. But plenty of other teams could be in the market at the end of this year for an under-30, All-Star caliber shortstop. And one of those teams could be the Phillies.Here's a quote from an NL East GM at the end of last season:
I think we'll probably let things, at this time, play out. There's some concern about his production the last couple of years. He's a much better player than he's played. We just have to make sure he's healthy.
Sounds like Mets GM Sandy Alderson talking about Reyes today. But it was Phillies GM Ruben Amaro talking about Jimmy Rollins, who is now entering the final year of his contract. Rollins just turned 32. Last season, he played in just 88 games, and had an OPS of only .694. In 2009, Rollins' OPS was just .719.
It's hard to imagine the Phillies replacing Rollins with a hated Met, especially Reyes. But a few years ago, it would have been even harder to imagine that the next regular Yankee centerfielder after Bernie Williams would be Red Sox "idiot" Johnny Damon.
Rollins will make $8.5 million this year. Raul Ibanez, whose contract also expires at the end of the season, makes $10.5 million. If the Phillies decide to part ways with Rollins, they will have money to spend at shortstop.
Today, Alderson claimed that the financial situation now facing Mets ownership won't affect whether or not the Mets re-sign Reyes:
I fully expect that decision will be made as it would have been, in the best interest of the team on the field, and the best interest of the overall sort of financial health as well as baseball future of the Mets -- as it would be with any other team.
But Alderson also said today that the Mets may not be plowing all the money that will come off the books after 2011 back into the team:
You may know recent Mets history better than I. I don't know if we've gotten this high in the past. One never wants to rest at one extreme or the other. My sense is that our payroll is a little higher this year than I would have liked to have been, but we are where we are. Whether that means we drop back in future years to some extent, I don't know. But we will continue to expend money at very high levels and I think be among the highest payrolls in baseball."
It's hard to believe that Alderson and his "dream team" are unaware of the Mets' payroll history. And if they don't know recent Mets history as well as they should, they should look back to 2005-8, when Reyes earned MVP votes four straight years and was the offensive catalyst when the team was a playoff contender.
If Reyes can't stay healthy yet again this season, the Mets have a difficult decision to make. But a healthy Reyes belongs on the Mets. Not on another team such as the Red Sox, which might also need a shortstop. And certainly not on the Phillies.
Friday, July 16, 2010
If Mets win, it will be in spite of Jerry Manuel and Omar Minaya
I feel bad for Fernando Tatis and wish him well now that he has undergone shoulder surgery and is on the 60-day DL, but the fact remains that almost 1.5 of Omar Minaya's Opening Day roster consisted of players that would not make most major-league teams. It took half a year, but the Mets have finally purged the roster of Tatis, Mike Jacobs, Gary Matthews and Frank Catalanotto.
A case could be made that a pennant contender would also not have players like Luis Castillo, Oliver Perez and John Maine, who were not only on the Opening Day roster, but started the season in prominent roles.
If the Mets still had their Opening Day roster, and Ike Davis, R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi and Ruben Tejada were not on the team, they would not have gone 48-40 in the first half.
Minaya does deserve credit for finding Dickey and Takahashi. Everyone keeps getting ready to write Dickey off, but last night he kept the Mets in the game against two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Imagine if Maine or Perez had been pitching instead.
Tejada improves the Mets' defense over Castillo, and when he was hitting at least a little, the Mets were winning, going something like 15-5 in the first 20 games Tejada started after Castillo went on the DL. But with Tejada in a deep slump, the nearing return of Castillo may not be the disaster that it appeared to be a couple of weeks ago.
But Perez is also nearing a return, which brings up a big difference between last year's Met team and this year's. Last year, the team and fans waited, mostly in vain, for injured players to return. But now that Carlos Beltran is back, most fans and probably the team as well are dreading the return of players like Perez.
Despite Jerry Manuel's numerous curious moves, I was ready to give him credit for the Mets' successful first half until the handling of Jose Reyes' oblique injury. The Mets appear to have forgotten the lessons learned last year about rushing players back. The organization as a whole likely shares responsibility, but it was Manuel who put Reyes in his original lineup for Thursday night's game against the Giants, because, as Metsblog reported:
"I assumed that he was ready to play…I put him in the lineup, and then [Ray Ramirez] came to me and said that there is still a bit of discomfort, even though he feels much improved, and I took him out of the lineup."
Reyes had not swung a bat since Sunday, but Manuel assumed he was ready to play. Manuel added that Reyes appeared "much better," which appears to be more wishful thinking on Manuel's part. As Metsblog writer Michael Baron wrote:
…if he’s not ready to play, i don’t think he can be 'much better' as Manuel indicates…i think it would be ok if someone simply said 'the guy is hurt, he needs time off to rest'…that really would be ok, because that would mean nobody is going to try and accelerate his return, like last year, and prolong this issue…
The Mets went through this last year and nobody lost his job. If Reyes is out any length of time, someone needs to be held accountable.
And if Reyes is out, the Mets don't have to worry about trading for some so-so starter who probably won't make an appreciable difference to a team whose big problem now is scoring runs, because the Mets will be out of the race.
A case could be made that a pennant contender would also not have players like Luis Castillo, Oliver Perez and John Maine, who were not only on the Opening Day roster, but started the season in prominent roles.
If the Mets still had their Opening Day roster, and Ike Davis, R.A. Dickey, Hisanori Takahashi and Ruben Tejada were not on the team, they would not have gone 48-40 in the first half.
Minaya does deserve credit for finding Dickey and Takahashi. Everyone keeps getting ready to write Dickey off, but last night he kept the Mets in the game against two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum. Imagine if Maine or Perez had been pitching instead.
Tejada improves the Mets' defense over Castillo, and when he was hitting at least a little, the Mets were winning, going something like 15-5 in the first 20 games Tejada started after Castillo went on the DL. But with Tejada in a deep slump, the nearing return of Castillo may not be the disaster that it appeared to be a couple of weeks ago.
But Perez is also nearing a return, which brings up a big difference between last year's Met team and this year's. Last year, the team and fans waited, mostly in vain, for injured players to return. But now that Carlos Beltran is back, most fans and probably the team as well are dreading the return of players like Perez.
Despite Jerry Manuel's numerous curious moves, I was ready to give him credit for the Mets' successful first half until the handling of Jose Reyes' oblique injury. The Mets appear to have forgotten the lessons learned last year about rushing players back. The organization as a whole likely shares responsibility, but it was Manuel who put Reyes in his original lineup for Thursday night's game against the Giants, because, as Metsblog reported:
"I assumed that he was ready to play…I put him in the lineup, and then [Ray Ramirez] came to me and said that there is still a bit of discomfort, even though he feels much improved, and I took him out of the lineup."
Reyes had not swung a bat since Sunday, but Manuel assumed he was ready to play. Manuel added that Reyes appeared "much better," which appears to be more wishful thinking on Manuel's part. As Metsblog writer Michael Baron wrote:
…if he’s not ready to play, i don’t think he can be 'much better' as Manuel indicates…i think it would be ok if someone simply said 'the guy is hurt, he needs time off to rest'…that really would be ok, because that would mean nobody is going to try and accelerate his return, like last year, and prolong this issue…
The Mets went through this last year and nobody lost his job. If Reyes is out any length of time, someone needs to be held accountable.
And if Reyes is out, the Mets don't have to worry about trading for some so-so starter who probably won't make an appreciable difference to a team whose big problem now is scoring runs, because the Mets will be out of the race.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Remember when the media said Jose Reyes and David Wright were better than Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez?
Today's Joel Sherman column in the New York Post reminds me of two of the dopiest ideas pushed by the New York sportswriters over the past few years - that David Wright is better than Alex Rodriguez, and Jose Reyes is better than Derek Jeter.
And this wasn't pushed by one writer or two - this idea was pretty common in the New York papers from about 2006 on. You would have thought that Jeter and A-Rod were as worn out as Emmitt Smith in the Just For Men commerical, the way certain writers in this town insisted that the Mets stars were on the rise. As Doctor Phil would say, how's that working out for you?
Sherman writes:
On the other hand, A-Rod has a much thicker skin after all these years of criticism than you would think. (If you want to see the flip side of that, look at how poorly David Ortiz has handled getting criticism this season. But I digress.)
As for Wright, I don't know whether he is afraid of getting plunked again, or he doesn't feel comfortable in Citi Field, or something, but he's not quite the third baseman he was projected to be. And he's certainly not better than A-Rod. I remember one A-Rod hating Yankee beat writer suggesting a trade of Wright for A-Rod straight up to "get rid of the headache" of Rodriguez, only for the writer to then say that the Mets would never want to do such a trade. Another writer wrote earlier this year that he would prefer Wright to Rodriguez. Please.
And I do think the Mets rushed Jose Reyes back before he was healthy enough to play. I still contend they're not taking his thyroid issue seriously enough.
Sherman continues:
What do you think? Tell us about it!
And this wasn't pushed by one writer or two - this idea was pretty common in the New York papers from about 2006 on. You would have thought that Jeter and A-Rod were as worn out as Emmitt Smith in the Just For Men commerical, the way certain writers in this town insisted that the Mets stars were on the rise. As Doctor Phil would say, how's that working out for you?
Sherman writes:
Wright was going to be the Mets’ Jeter; the homegrown kid who mixed skill, intangibles and charisma to become prince of the city. Instead, he has finally passed Rodriguez in the worst of all categories: Wright is now the most dissected athlete in New York. We break down his swing and psychoanalyze his mind. What is up with the wild arm, the lack of clutch play and, yes, all of those strikeouts?You see, this is why you don't make somebody an "untouchable" before they've really proven themselves. Jeter got that type of treatment after four rings. Wright got it before the Mets even won a playoff series. Now that Wright is finally getting scrutinized, and it's got to hurt, after the years of the media telling him how great he is.
On the other hand, A-Rod has a much thicker skin after all these years of criticism than you would think. (If you want to see the flip side of that, look at how poorly David Ortiz has handled getting criticism this season. But I digress.)
As for Wright, I don't know whether he is afraid of getting plunked again, or he doesn't feel comfortable in Citi Field, or something, but he's not quite the third baseman he was projected to be. And he's certainly not better than A-Rod. I remember one A-Rod hating Yankee beat writer suggesting a trade of Wright for A-Rod straight up to "get rid of the headache" of Rodriguez, only for the writer to then say that the Mets would never want to do such a trade. Another writer wrote earlier this year that he would prefer Wright to Rodriguez. Please.
And I do think the Mets rushed Jose Reyes back before he was healthy enough to play. I still contend they're not taking his thyroid issue seriously enough.
Sherman continues:
Reyes and Wright have dwindled from cornerstones to puzzles. The Mets went all in during the 2006 season, signing both to multi-year contracts, believing they had erected a long-term foundation. Now the Mets will have to decide on Reyes’ $11 million option for 2011 and whether a champion really can be built around the left side of their infield.
As a new Subway Series begins, the question now is not whether Reyes and Wright have passed Jeter and Rodriguez, but if the best days for Reyes and Wright already have passed and, if so, how do the Mets survive that?I see Sherman's point, but I think he is going a bit too far in the other direction for my tastes. I don't think Reyes and Wright are washed up. But I do think that the Yankee-haters in the media pumped them up to be bigger than they were. Somewhere in between are the real players. It would be nice if the press had kept some perspective on them in the first place.
What do you think? Tell us about it!
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